Review | B&D Ice House

SAN ANTONIO — The first bite of tender, juicy and beautifully smoky brisket immediately vaulted B&D Ice House into the realm of the best barbecue in the city.

A month and a half later, it fell hard from that perch, and now I'm not sure what to think about the restaurant.

This place seemed like it would be a sure thing. The partnership between chef and entrepreneur Jason Dady and Steve and Jody Newman, owners of The Friendly Spot and Alamo Street Eat Bar and partners in Tuk Tuk Tap Room, combines strong talent.

They started well. We went to B&D Ice House a couple weeks after it opened, and the meats were stunning.

The brisket featured beautiful bark and tender, juicy meat with a well-rounded, smoke-enhanced flavor. The slightly sweet exterior of the Big Red Glazed Babies — the baby back ribs — gave way to a tender interior that melted after a bite and featured just enough firmness to stay on the bone.

Tender smoked turkey was a delight, as was a juicy and smoky sausage. Chicken thighs were nearly perfect, with tender, smoky, juicy meat and skin that evoked the texture of a Peking duck.

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Jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon were a touch of campfire cooking taken to another level. The chopped-beef Frito pie, topped with shredded yellow cheese, minced green onions, a dollop of sour cream and cherry tomatoes, elevated the childhood favorite.

Meanwhile, side dishes, such as a deftly flavored green chile mac and cheese, a bright mustard potato salad and a refreshing coleslaw, were consistently good in all our visits.

Fast forward a month and a half, and a lunch visit brought performances similar to the ones we enjoyed during the first visit. Brisket starred again, and the chicken thighs, bacon-wrapped jalapeños and Frito pie also delivered the goods.

Another item on the snacks section, the “Rub” Spiced Peanuts, were tantalizingly close to amazing. The dish consisted of peanuts in their shells, roasted over a grill and covered with dry rub spices. If the peanuts had been shelled before roasting and covered with the spices, they would be the perfect bar food or anytime snack.

Sandwiches were consistently serviceable but not particularly memorable. The different versions combined smoked meats with side dishes as sandwich filling and generally muddled otherwise lovely flavors.

For example, The “Bruno” combined chopped beef, green chile mac and cheese, and coleslaw with a touch of Shiner barbecue sauce. Interesting idea, but the combination didn't elevate the different elements.

Then a week later, I went back and a sign said the place was out of smoked meats. No big deal. I'd come back later. The waitress at the cash register said she could serve anything off the Snacks section of the menu and the sandwiches. Unfortunately, this is where the quality of the experience plummeted.

A chipotle dip with chips tasted of sour cream with lots of cumin and some chipotles. The B&D “Buffalo” Dip tasted of little more than thick cream.

The Mexican Shrimp Cocktail tasted like shrimp in cold stewed tomatoes, with no flavors of onions, cilantro, chiles, hot sauce or even salt and pepper, for that matter.

Another week later, the restaurant's Facebook page invited patrons to pick up food before the Spurs game, proclaiming “the smoked chicken thighs are where it's at today.”

The meats we received were undoubtedly amazing several hours earlier, but they should have not been served for dinner. The brisket, still with a gorgeous bark and tasty layer of fat, was completely mushy. The smoked turkey that had thrilled us a few weeks earlier was dry and barely edible, as were the baby backs. Even the sausage was dry.

Chicken thighs, indeed, were the best meats that evening, but even they were far removed from their earlier quality. The skin had dried to the point where it was impossible to chew through, and the meat was merely adequate.

The shrimp cocktail again disappointed, and no amount of Tabasco or Cholula could rescue that one.

At least the bacon-wrapped jalapeños were still good.

The inconsistencies presented a challenge in awarding stars. The first couple of visits would have earned a solid three stars for the food, while the latter visits merited only a single star. Take the average and it comes to two stars.

How can a restaurant perform so well one week and then so miserably only a month and a half later? This place needs some serious attention to get its performance and consistency to the level where it should be.

Edmund Tijerina writes about food and reviews restaurants for the San Antonio Express-News. His culinary explorations began with rolling flour tortillas as a child and included a yearlong stint as chef and owner of a restaurant in Milwaukee. He is a frequent contributor to Eater.com and has written about food, restaurants and reviewing for Epicurious and Romenesko. He joined the Express-News in 1999 after closing his restaurant. Before joining the Taste team, he wrote the ""Around the Town"" column for the Express-News form 2002-2008. His other assignments for the paper included education and news obituaries. He began his newspaper career in Bay City, Texas, before going to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, graduate school in New York, a yearlong internship at the Chicago Tribune and different positions at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He's a Houston native with philosophy degree from Harvard and a master's from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He lives with and cooks for his wife and son in San Antonio.